Synthetic Ice Advice?

[freekincage77 0]

So for next spring, I'm hoping to make a synthetic ice rink in my backyard

I'm wondering if anyone has tried it and can give me some feedback?

Thanks , James.

[english15x 3]

ha, i don't think anyone here has made one since its so expensive.

[HattrickSwayze 3]

Feedback on how to make it, or feedback on the ice itself?

[freekincage77 0]

On the ice itself

Never tried it.

Of course manufacturers say that its just like ice with like 4% more resistance but I wanted some unbiased opinions

[HattrickSwayze 3]

I actually learned to skate on synthetic ice. The stuff I used (Puckmasters stuff) definitely is more than 4% resistance. You can skate on it just fine, it's just there's so much less glide, it kinda feels like you're stuck in mud. It's a solid work out though, and good for your form/technique because you can't straighten up and just glide around. It kinda forces you to keep your knees bent and in a hockey position. I can't speak for other companies ice though. I'd love to have a little rink to stickhandle and skate on.

[hyprlte 0]

http://www.fitnessdepotcommercial.com/fdc/blogsmu/news/

this looked interesting. Hopefully i can install it next year at my house

[Healthy_Scratch_15 0]

I've skated on it (the puckmaster stuff). It is pretty cool stuff. Once you get going full stride you can hardly tell a difference. The faster you go, the less you will notice the difference. It is when you first step on it and go slow that it really feels WEIRD. When you first step on it you feel like a new-born giraffe, but it doesn't take long to get used to it. The puck somehow glides nearly as well as on ice.

[shoeshine boy 246]

I skated on a friend's (he has WAY too much money!) synthetic rink a few weeks ago. it was definitely a unique experience. it's best to start out on one skate with some scooter pushes until you get a good glide going. once you get going it's pretty cool. stopping was a LOT easier than I thought it would be.

what wasn't? going backwards. it's almost impossible. I definitely agree that it forces you into proper form.

by my estimate my buddy, who's rink is about as big as a standard rink's neutral zone probably cost him upwards of 30K USD and that's after he got a really good deal on the "ice" itself. he has the surface, boards similar to barriers you see in parking garages in airports, a "resurfacer" and a hydraulic lift he uses to keep the pieces from coming apart. the other thing he had to do that was a hassle was jumping through the hoops of his local homeowner's association.

[TheHerminator22 0]

I actually learned to skate on synthetic ice. The stuff I used (Puckmasters stuff) definitely is more than 4% resistance. You can skate on it just fine, it's just there's so much less glide, it kinda feels like you're stuck in mud. It's a solid work out though, and good for your form/technique because you can't straighten up and just glide around. It kinda forces you to keep your knees bent and in a hockey position. I can't speak for other companies ice though. I'd love to have a little rink to stickhandle and skate on.

This pretty much sums it up. It's a lot like a sport court that is safe for your ice skates and leaves a lot of gross shavings on your equipment. In high school our facility had a mini synthetic rink that I used to get more shots throughout the week. It's very good for working on shooting and leg strength. The resistance makes you work A LOT harder which translates nicely over to real ice.

[ice365 0]

I am a distributor of synthetic ice for IcePro and I will tell you that the resistance is more than 4% and that there are good products and bad products.

So if you are in the market to get some make sure you do your due dilegence before you purchase.

Here are some questions you should ask the supplier of synthetic ice: 1) Is the base resin Low Density Polyethylene (LDPe), High Density Polyethylene (HDPe - 300), High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (HMWPe - 500), Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPe - 1,000) or something different?

2) Are there performance enhancing additives mixed with the resin prior to extruding or pressing?

3) Is the resin naturally UV stable or are stabilizers added?

cheers

[stefanor 0]

did not know that something like that exists! nice!

durability? does the syntetic ice need to be "renewed" from skates "scratches"?

Do you use normal skates?

[shoeshine boy 246]

normal skates work just fine. the ice will last (essentially) forever but you do have to perform maintenance on it to keep it in tip-top shape. after I skated on it I had little bits of the material in my gear for weeks!

[zebra_steve 11]

So... someone tell me about the care and maintenance.... how is it resurfaced? How frequently does it need done? What is used to resurface? Estimated maintenance costs?

Do you use the same hollow on your skates or go way shallower?

[leonzhu 7]

i once shot an advert for CANAL+ on synthetic ice (i forget which brand it was) but it was awful. I have 3/8" ROH on my skates, and in the 3 hours of shooting i changed between both pairs of skates at least twice (4 changes) with the skates being sent off to be sharpened in a prosharp in between changes.

You definitely can't skate like on ice, there's no bite whatsoever and the friction makes it like trying to skate on concrete. Stopping is well weird, and tight turns felt impossible. The whole surface was coated with glycerine or something like that to lubricate it so i could skate better, but that just made everything messy and made the puck stop due to 'stiction'.

I reckon the one i skated on was a terrible grade of product, but maybe ice365 can enlighten us on his product?

[ice365 0]

I will try and answer all the questions asked.

you do skate on it with real skates and you can do anything on it that you can do on ice besides spray the goalie with snow. Some products like the one fellow who mentioned from puckmasters does leave a lot of shavings all over the place and it does get all over the gear. When you look at the stuff from our product it is like wiping a fine layer of snow off your skate. We do use a light mist of glide solution on our product but it is not that noticeable. The puck does not slide like fresh ice but more like a half period of skating on regular ice. all though I have found a puck that works very well, and just like ice, that my boys use when they are practiceing stick handling. Maintenance depends on how much skating is done and the user will know when to apply another layer of glide solution. Baically a quick vacumn and then solution. As for the last fellow the product you tried sounds like it was crap, and that is why there are negative comment to synthetic ice. With our stuff you can actually cut harder than you can on real ice which tends to through a lot of people off till they get used to it. For skate sharpening it is basically the same as your regular skating except for my boys they have more opportunity to be on synthetetic than artificial. We get basically a game and a practice a week but the boys get to skate on synthetic everyday and my 5 year old is a deadly puck handler already.

Again if anyone is going to purchse synthetic, try the products first or ask the questions I posted earlier. our product comes from Germany and they have been making synthetic ice for 30 years and you can hardly go wrong with German engineering.

cheers

[furlanitalia 1]

So far nothing seen said here is out of the ordinary, the ice does provide more resistance (I've trained on it, managed a facility with it, and currently work for Puckmasters Head Office).

For those of you with shavings in your gear, did you maintain the ice properly? To combat this problem in our facilities we use a proprietary surfactant known as PowerGlide to keep the resistance on the ice maintained so you can do everything (including skate backwards). You still get some dust, but it definitely doesn't get in your gear when applied daily.

Maintenance is simple - use a shop vac to vacuum the rink every 5-8 hours (depending on dust buildup) and apply PowerGlide 15 min before every use. The surface will absorb part of the lubricant while the rest will remain on the top creating a skating/stickhandling layer. More PowerGlide, less resistance and dust. Less PowerGlide, more resistance and dust.

Keep in mind this only applies to ProSpeed; I can't vouch for other products.

[bostonjuniorblackhawks 1]

I love skating on synthetic ice. I used to skate on it once a week with one of my old coaches until the place closed. It really helped my form.

[ironslave 2]

That looks awesome.... how much would it be for a square foot, any approximate ideas?

[ice365 0]

That looks awesome.... how much would it be for a square foot, any approximate ideas?

For the residential product the cost is about $180 cdn per sq meter( life span 10-15 years of everyday use). The commercial product goes for around $22.50 a square foot(life span 20-25 years of everyday use).

[AIREAYE 248]

How would you stop on synthetic? same as on ice? would a bunch of plastic flakes go flying up and mark the surface?

[BourqueD77 0]

^yeah how does it hold up? Like up keep and cleaning...is there any? like when you stop on it does flakes come off the top surface? for someone who is a crazed hockey nut and wants it to shoot and skate around on whenever possible if it does break down somehow this is gonna suck haha.

[bostonjuniorblackhawks 1]

How would you stop on synthetic? same as on ice? would a bunch of plastic flakes go flying up and mark the surface?

Same as on ice. It takes a while to get used to. There is somewhat of dust like coating left after you skate that needs to be vacuumed.

[ice365 0]

How would you stop on synthetic? same as on ice? would a bunch of plastic flakes go flying up and mark the surface?

You stop the same as you do on ice with a little bit more of a slide but not much. i have seen and been on others where you slide alot more.(poor grade)

Maybe what i can do is actually take some pictues and show them on here. not sure if that is allowed.